Pope urges silent, contemplative preparation for Christmas

From Catholic World News
Christians should prepare for Christmas with silent recollection, to protect themselves from excesses of commercialism, Pope Benedict XVI told a public audience on December 18.

"During this period of preparation for Christmas, let us cultivate interior meditation, in order to welcome and safeguard Jesus in our lives," the Holy Father said at his Sunday Angelus audience. He called attention to the example set by St. Joseph, who maintained an interior silence "interwoven with constant prayer" as he awaited the birth of Jesus.

"Let us allow ourselves to be infected by the silence of St. Joseph," the Pontiff encouraged his listeners. "We need it very much, in a world that is often too noisy."

I would shout “amen,” but the problem for me seems less to do with commercialism per se, then with the endless clamor for my time. Grades are due, but my last test had to be rescheduled because of a freeze; deadlines at the office don’t give a hoot about the coming of the Messiah; I spend 2 to 4 hours a day burning gasoline in traffic; I am on call 24x7 the week after Christmas; even the bustle of church obligations doesn’t leave much time for reflection and contemplation. The small Lent of Advent has become a bit of a joke again this year, just like it seems to do every year.

I suspect that I am hardly alone. Our Modern Capitalist Society (Of which I am a big fan! No socialism here!) seems to form a spiderweb that I haven’t yet figured out how to successfully navigate. Every time I turn around, I get stuck on another strand of the web, and the Spider is always prowling around ready to inject a little more poison.

I sure don’t have any great insights, but there is a section in The Way of the Pilgrim that basically says “just pray.” God uses even the most attention-deficit prayer as a means of our transformation, and a rosary in a traffic jam is not to be avoided just because it will be imperfectly said. I may be unable to find an hour of silence or solitude; I may be too distracted to center my attention on the Lord; I can, however, always find a second to say “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It isn’t much, but – thank God - in the final analysis, everything depends on what He does with it, not on what I do.